


Unassumed

by Dxlilith



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, early years of hogwarts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-25
Updated: 2014-12-25
Packaged: 2018-03-03 11:58:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2850083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dxlilith/pseuds/Dxlilith
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the beginning, it was the only did she did</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unassumed

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kristen Mallory](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Kristen+Mallory).



Hermione Granger was a bookworm. This was an understatement of course because anyone who even saw the girl underneath the mounds of books and scrolls, would see it. Her lust for knowledge, her insatiable appetite for all things in and outside of magic. She hadn’t always been like that. No. When she was younger, years before even knowing that the wizarding world existed, she enjoyed things like dolls and toads and bicycles and picking scabs off her knees from scraps.

“A witch? I can do magic?” She wondered out loud. She couldn’t believe it. She thought it was an elaborate joke from her parents. But they were just as clueless when the woman in green robes arrived at their door, explaining in great detail all the nuances of the educational system for young wizards.

Hermione knew she’d be at a disadvantage so she prepared. She read. She researched. She interviewed. She learned as much as humanly possible in the two months before entering Hogwarts so that she would not be befallen by the title of _muggle-born_. Then she was sorted into Gryffindor, a surprise as she had assumed she’d be put in Hufflepuff because she felt she did not fit the outlined mantras for the other three; and met Harry and Ron.

She also met a pale boy. Blonde hair, blue eyes, and pouty lips used for whining and demanding but at the time she had only heard, “Do you mind if I sit here?”

She was shocked. No one ever asked her permission of things, they either did or she made sure it was done. It was just her unwavering need to fit into the magic world that drove her this way. She said “Of course”

She rearranged some of the books she had lying about to give the boy room for his. He said “Thanks.” And sat down. They did not speak for another hour. In fact, Hermione had all but forgotten he was there until she heard the boy mumbling an enchantment.

“You’re doing it wrong.”

“Whut?” He too forgot he was still sat at a table with someone else.

“It’s pronounced _AH-par-EE-see-um_ not _AH-par-EH-see-um._ ”

The boy stared at her, a passing look of incredulity that he’d just been corrected by a complete stranger.

“ _Aparecium_ ” he attempts louder and with more conviction. A thin silver light filters through the tip of his wand to the empty piece of parchment in front of him. Hermione can’t help but lean over the table to watch as words begin to appear across the page. She reads the words _my dear Draco, how I do miss you_ before the boy snatches the page away.

“It’s none of your business!” The boy shouts, gaining the attention of other students around the library.

“I’m sorry.” Hermione breathes out, her cheeks coloring red as she realizes that indeed it was not her business. She sits back down and reaches for the book she’d just been reading on pixies and shields her face with it.

She hears a rustling and movement and knows the boy is collecting his things and leaving and can’t help but feel rejected. She truly hadn’t meant to be nosey, she was only curious in knowing if the spell had worked.

“Thank you.”

She peeked her head out from the top of her book and saw that the boy was still sitting in front of her with his books stacked in a neat pile in front of him. She smiles because this is the first thank you she has heard directed at her by another student since the beginning of the school year.

“You’re welcome.”

“You’re a muggle-born.”

“ _What_?” She is floored by non-sequential response from the boy who is now smiling.

“You’re one of Potter’s lot. The know-it-all.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Yeah, Graingor is it?”

“Granger, Hermione Granger.”

“Draco Malfoy.”

“Oh, you’re that rude boy who tried to be Harry’s friend beginning of the semester.”

“I lucked out of that one, he’s a right pillock.” He is still smiling. It’s a bit unnerving.

“Well, Harry is my friend and I won’t have you speaking ill of him.” She began shuffling her own books and scrolls into a pile, ready to leave the boy whom she now knew to stay away from.

“Is he? It looks more like you follow him and the weasel around. Why not be my friend? I’ll acknowledge your existence for one.”

Hermione’s eyes could not help but widen at the brazen remark. Sure she hadn’t really asserted her position of friend with the two Gryffindor boys but she had enough classes and joint assignments with them to be deemed a worthy acquaintance. Not that it mattered. Hermione was here to learn. Not make friends. She didn’t need friends to score high marks.

“I’m sure you’re rather pretty under all that hair and teeth.”

Hermione’s face is redder than a salamander on fire and she can no longer speak as she scoops her materials up and stands to walk away entirely.

“I’ll be seeing you then?”

She doesn’t stop to answer him, just stomps out of the library and all the way to the Gryffindor common room. So of course she misses the way Draco’s eyes follow her out the door with a sly grin on his face. “ _Hermione Granger._ ”


End file.
